Author: Greg McElhatton

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Icaro

Written by Moebius
Art by Jiro Taniguchi
160 pages, black and white
Published by iBooks, Inc.

If you asked people what superpower they’d want to have, I think flight would be one of the top choices. There’s something liberating about the idea of being able to fly—that you can somehow escape the grasp of the world around you and instantly go wherever you want. French comics legend Moebius certainly understood that when he wrote Icaro, a two-volume collaboration with Japanese artist Jiro Taniguchi where a child is born with the power of flight… but without the power of liberation.

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Lex Talionis: A Jungle Tale

By Aneurin Wright
48 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

We’re seeing more and more comics printed landscape, these days. I’m referring to comics where instead of being taller than they are wide, the book’s been rotated 90 degrees so now it’s wider than it is tall. It certainly gets the reader’s attention, but once you’ve gotten past the initial “ooh, it’s sideways” the question remains: is the comic itself any good?

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Outsiders #7

Written by Judd Winick
Penciled by Tom Raney
Inked by Scott Hanna
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

Sometimes all it takes is a snazzy cover. It’s what got me to buy the most recent issue of Outsiders, after all. I’d heard a lot about the new hit series from DC Comics, and it was certainly on my radar as something I should take a look at. But while I was browsing the racks, there was something about Tom Raney and Scott Hanna’s illustration on the front of Outsiders #7 that begged me to take a closer look. Maybe it was the character on the front page melting, maybe it was is catatonic pose, but whatever it was… it worked.

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My Faith in Frankie #1

Written by Mike Carey
Penciled by Sonny Liew
Inked by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel
32 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

It’s been a while since I’ve been so surprised by a comic. Usually when a new book comes out, I’ve read a bunch about it, know what to expect, seen an advance page or two… stuff like that. But somehow My Faith in Frankie fell completely off my radar. I knew it was being created, I knew that Mike Carey (whose comics I really enjoy) was writing it, and that Sonny Liew (whose Malinky Robot I reviewed about a month ago) was the penciler. But somehow, it just didn’t stick in my mind. Now that I’ve read #1, though, I won’t be forgetting it any time soon.

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Blacksad Vol. 1: Somewhere Within the Shadows

Written by Juan Díaz Canales
Art by Guarnido
56 pages, color
Published by iBooks

A couple of years ago, a friend returned from a trip to Spain with several graphic albums he’d picked up, and there was one in particular that stood out: Blacksad. With its amazing art and noir sensibilities, I knew that I absolutely had to own this graphic album. The only stumbling block for me to really enjoy it? I don’t speak Spanish. Thankfully, with an English language edition of Blacksad now available, I don’t have to invest in that new foreign language class after all.

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Vertical

Written by Steven T. Seagle
Penciled by Mike Allred
Inked by Philip Bond
64 pages, color
Published by Vertigo/DC Comics

At a casual glance, it’s a gimmick comic. Take the normal dimensions of a comic and slice them in half so it’s only half as wide as normal. Then, let the comic open up from top to bottom so it’s twice as tall. What’s surprising, then, is that once you get past the casual glance that Vertical works quite well in these strange dimensions. In fact, I can’t imagine it any other way.

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Superman: Secret Identity #1

Written by Kurt Busiek
Art by Stuart Immonen
48 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

If you had to pick an iconic superhero that more people knew about than any other, Superman would probably be the winner. That’s probably why Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen chose him for their Superman: Secret Identity mini-series. In many ways, it seems like it’s a book that doesn’t depend so much on the character… but on the rest of the world knowing who that character is.

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Hobbit

Adapted by Charles Dixon and Sean Deming
Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien
Art by David Wenzel
144 pages, color
Published by Del Rey

I think it’s safe to say that Lord of the Rings mania is currently in full force. With three amazingly successful movies courtesy Peter Jackson, J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famed work has found itself to a whole new audience now hungry for all-things Tolkien. With that in mind, could there possibly be a better time for them to pick up a copy of the graphic novel adaptation of The Hobbit courtesy Chuck Dixon, Sean Deming, and David Wenzel? Nope, this is definitely the right time.

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AutobioGraphix

Edited by Diana Schutz
104 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

I’ve never understood why so many comics focus on autobiographies. Maybe it’s the old adage to write what you know, and what better thing to know than your own life? The problem with that, of course, is that most people’s lives really aren’t that interesting. Editor Diana Schutz probably had that in mind when she put together the anthology AutobioGraphix, then, by publishing short stories by a number of comics creators. Because while everyone’s lives may not be that interesting, almost everyone must have at least an amusing short story from their life.

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Vagabond Vol. 8

By Takehiko Inoue
Based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
216 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

When Viz first debuted Takehiko Inoue’s new series Vagabond two years ago, it’s safe to say that I loved it. Since then I’ve encountered Inoue’s earlier series Slam Dunk to much enjoyment, and I thought I’d learned what to expect from Inoue. With the new volume of Vagabond, though, Inoue has shown me that I still have much to learn.

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